The front page news if England's first Play By Mail D&D game. Interestingly there is a mention of a "computerised" one in America. D&D is barely a year old and someone put it onto a computer!
Also covered is the first Northern Go Tournament in Manchester.
Steve Jackson moves to Brighton from London, but will still be working on O&W.
As we move on there is a brief guide on Patents for people designing their own games. The guide is fairly specific to the place and time, but still an interesting read. Maybe not for the content but for the mere fact it is here and the dedicated so much (a page and an 1/6) to it. Yes even back then, or maybe especially back then, people wanted to do things their own way.
Speaking of which the next page (the remaining 5/6ths) covers some of the "house rules" contributor Graham Buckell has been allowing for in his D&D games. Also some that Steve Jackson has been using in his games. Party members get two attempts at opening a door for example. Clerics also get an extra chance per level to pray for a specific spell. The math is typical of the time P(granting spell) = (Spells needed/spells used) x (char. level/spell level) x 0.6. They are only granted a number of these extra spells on a per year basis.
A house rule to give Fighting Men more hits (hp) is introduced. Basically they can't have less than 3 hp at 1st level.
A lengthy review/overview of the game Kingmaker is the "centerfold".
The new Sci-Fi war game "Galactic War" is discussed by the designer. I don't know if the game was every produced or caught on. I'll keep an eye out in future issues.
Third part of the article on Mah Jong is up.
The most interesting bit is shoved into the corner of page 11. A "preview" of a new game "Empire of the Petal Throne" with the promise of a review after they have played it.
Last page has some ads including the TSR one and, yup there it is, Galactic War for £1.00.
A solid issue covering the ground well established by O&W at this time.
39 years, surely!
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